The use of tactical voice communication in military fighter aviation today normally requires simultaneous availability of two voice communication services. An example of this is the following setup, one voice service or channel is used for the communication between fighter divisions and a military command central (a fighter division being a fighting unit comprising a group of fighter aircrafts), and a second voice service or channel is used for the communication within each fighter division, that is, between the fighter aircrafts in each group. In order to provide these two simultaneous voice communication services, the fighter aircrafts normally needs to be designed for and fitted with two voice radio communication devices.
Because the advanced technology and electronics in modern fighter aircrafts requires real-time update information, tactical data communication services is also required. Tactical data communication services, both between the fighter aircrafts and between the fighter division and the military command central, is therefore necessary in order for the fighter division to successfully carry out its mission or task.
This normally requires designing and installing a third radio communication device, since both of the other radio communication devices are reserved for voice communication and therefore are unavailable for tactical data communication. The costs associated with implementing a third radio communication device in a fighter aircraft are considerable and would require extensive research and development even before the arduous and time-consuming task of integrating it into the fighter aircraft.